Zambia Safari - Part two
Zambia Safari - Part two
Thursday, September 13, 2007
One of my favorite animals from my trip is the hippopotamus. There is something special to me about their eyes and the way these magnificent creatures constantly watch you, their moaning and groaning as they mark their territory and their cute waddle of a walk. Indeed I didn’t realize how much they do walk and it was quite common for us to literally bump into one of them just wandering around the bush, quite a long way away from the river.
Something is wrong with this shot!
During the trip we stayed in a number of camps, but my favorite was the Wilderness Camp. Situated right next to the river, it was a beautiful spot made even more interesting by a large collection of hippos that resided literally right outside our door. These nocturnal creatures use the night as their primary feeding time and as such leave the river, strolling right through the camp in search of dinner. Combine the frequent tree crashing with their ever-present honking and roaring as they mark their territory and fight off other combative males, and basically there is not much sleep to be had during the night. One morning on an early walk around the camp before breakfast, I catch sight of a couple of moving hippos and realize that one rather large, battle-torn male was in the process of mating, with the poor female struggling to keep her head above water.
Matting hippo's
After a busy night foraging for food, daytime for the 30,000 hippos in the Luangwa Valley is typically spent lounging around. It is halfway through the dry season, which to the locals is considered winter. As such, the hippos find the temperature cold — hence they often spend most of the morning catching the rays to warm up after the night. Being highly social creatures they lie close together, often on top of each other, while the ever-present Oxpeckers remove the bugs from the hippos’ backs and enjoy their own breakfast.
Lounging hippos in the sun
Holding what is believed to be one of the largest collections of hippos in the world, things become a little too crowded in the Luangwa Valley as water levels drop during the dry season. While I was there, the river had already started to fall, yet there was still room enough for hippos. But in just a few weeks’ time the overcrowding would start to become intense. As that happens the territorial males will start to fight for their own small piece of the river in fierce battles, where there can be only one winner. The loser, assuming that it wasn’t killed in the fight, will get expelled, often injured with little ability to find another spot of water or food with the result being a lingering death, often lasting a week or more. And at that time the predators will arrive, be it the lion, the hyena or a croc, who will wait out the poor hippo’s death or maybe help it along.
canoe early one morning
It was at the Wilderness Camp that I spotted this dugout canoe, tied up to prevent it from floating away. The morning was the first with any clouds to speak of and I and liked the various reflections in the water and the moon, peaking through the clouds looking down on a small group of hippos resting after a busy night. It’s now time for a quick breakfast, before we jump back into the truck for the continuation of our ride north.
Thornicroft giraffe
Of all the creatures that I shot while in Zambia, to me Thornicroft’s giraffe had to be the most expressive, both in terms of their face, but also their bodies — well maybe just that long damn neck. Unique to the Luangwa Valley, it felt like they would leverage almost every angle that their neck gave them to check you out, often resulting in some hilarious images, and many that just look so damn odd. Combine that long neck, with its extra vertebrae and a tongue that can reach 45cm long, and this creature, although beautiful and an amazing piece of body engineering, can be really hard to capture in a single frame.
The impala is a very common antelope in the Luangwa Valley, one that we saw every day en masse and is often referred to as ‘bushveld sheep’ or ‘Zambezi goats.’ The females synchronize all their births to happen within a week or so. Known as “predator swamping,” this is a reproductive strategy aimed at producing so many lambs at one time that the big cats are unable to catch all of them. But the lions make a darn good attempt at it, killing around 50% of all new arrivals within the first few weeks! Because of their large numbers and the relative ease that the lions have in catching them, guides often refer to the impala as the “fast food” of the bush. That and the fact that the three black stripes on their bum remind people of the “M” of MacDonald’s!
Its rare that an impala would see a natural death
One morning I set out early to take advantage of the beautiful light that appeared almost every morning. It’s that warm soft light that gives everything in Luangwa that special glow for the first two hours or so and then it’s gone. That day we were heading towards a lagoon that still had a reasonable supply of water. A large group of Burchell’s Zebras left the waterhole and walk directly towards us as they grazed on the succulent grass. The Burchell’s in Luangwa have the distinction of not having a shadow stripe on the white parts of their body making them excellent photographic subjects with their contrast-y bodies. Adult stallions will run a harem of some four to ten mares, whose relationship lasts a lifetime unless something happens to one member of the group. Rivals are known to attempt to abduct one or two of the mares which can make for some very interesting viewing. I watched as a mare approached us, with her young foal consistently feeding as they moved. The young one, who still had the brown markings of her youth, would dive underneath its mother making it stop. The look of exasperation on the mother’s face made it seem like she were rolling her eyes, as if she wanted to say, “Aren’t you done yet?”
Breakfast!
The day is drawing to a close, about to be taken over by nightfall. This shot is taken from the west bank of the Kafunta River, South Luangwa, with the sun reflecting on the river. Two things strike me about this time of day. First, that the sun is so much redder and almost richer than in many other parts of the world. I’m not sure why, but there is a very real color difference. This is also true for sunrise. Second, the time that passes between the sun disappearing over the horizon and when darkness takes over the bush is very brief, less than one hour. Not much time to quickly make your way back to the camp and the relative safety that it provides.
The river is filled with a number of lounging hippo herds submerged in the river, waiting for darkness and their primary feeding time. This part of the river is a popular area for the local fishermen, two of which can be seen in their small dugout canoe. Although very stable on their own, these canoes are vulnerable to getting tipped over by an aggressive hippo, or even having a chunk taken out by the massive jaws that have been known to cause major damage to both watercraft and body. As if this danger weren’t enough, let’s not forget the ever- present lurking crocodile, ready for that next meal! These brave fishermen provide a valuable food source to the local villagers who are often subsistence farmers surviving only on what they produce themselves.
Danger standing guard
And then we return to camp to what became a traditional during the trip, a very different sundown for us visitors. The guide or another member of the team would pick a location to watch the sun leave us for another day and just sit there, enjoying it as if it’s the last, cocktail in hand. To the left Danger standing guard silhouetted resting on his rifle.
Next,
- I need to write up some more musings from the trip and post
- The main album with additional photographs.